At the $150 million,Arlington, Va.-based The Partnership Federal Credit Union,employees share the belief that their entire community deservesvalue through partnership. That philosophy is the backbone of thecredit union's core value – to serve those who uphold the public'sinterests.

And according to COO Bonnie Ortiz, CU Times' 2016Trailblazer Award winner for IT Executive of the Year, it's also areal cornerstone of how the organization does business.

“This credit union is founded on a core set of values and astrong purpose around maximizing value for our members and doingthat through partnerships,” Ortiz said.

The Partnership formed in 2009 as the result of a merger betweenFDIC Federal Credit Union and National Science Foundation FederalCredit Union. In 2012, the credit union expanded its growth bymerging Fannie Mae Federal Credit Union.

Ortiz originally came on board in 2008 to manage projectsrelated to the merger that formed the credit union. She led some 20projects of varying size that integrated the two merging creditunions as well as made decisions based on best practicesmethodologies.

“We don't do anything without a purpose or without a projectmanagement plan,” Ortiz noted.

Upon the merger's completion in June 2009, Ortiz was officiallynamed The Partnership's COO. One of her first moves as COO involvedcollaborating with the Baltimore-based IT managed services providerHorsetail Technologies to facilitate a robust and hardened ITinfrastructure. She then implemented extensive auditing programs toensure vendors held themselves to high security standards, as wellas instituted service-level agreements with nearly all theinstitution's vendors.

Ortiz also initiated an expansion of the credit union's datawarehouse, which helped introduce more vigorous reporting, expandedtracking and benchmarking, as well as increased the level ofautomation, which improved operational efficiency by integratingdata from multiple channels. These changes allowed the credit unionto create accurate models for engaged members, something thatsupported the credit union's Value in Partnership member engagementprogram.

Under Ortiz's direction, the credit union also launched morethan 10 new products, established more than a dozen new vendorrelationships, re-negotiated in excess of seven major contracts,and implemented business analytics that measure channel productivity,profitability and risk. Ortiz also developed a well-attendedtraining series that helped middle managers learn projectmanagement discipline and supported the expansion of projectmanagement proficiency across the organization. To date, theprogram has led two employees of The Partnership to becomecertified project managers.

“Our c-level executives, our senior leadership and our middlemanagers are being trained in the strategies and tactics that drivemaximizing the value for the member,” Ortiz said.

Ortiz has also developed project management templates andresources to ensure consistent application of those methodologies.The credit union, she explained, “follows strong standards andwell-proven project management principles.”

This discipline has allowed The Partnership FCU to offer asophisticated product suite, deliver value to members and enjoycost savings by managing projects in-house.

“The savings comes in the management as opposed to picking thecheapest product,” Ortiz said. “Because that isn't always the bestvalue.”

On the information technology side, Ortiz formed the creditunion's business-technology business unit, a combination of projectmanagement, product management and IT services.

“For me it is all about maximizing and stabilizing yourinfrastructure so you can bring more products to market in ashorter period of time for less money,” Ortiz said.

In addition to Horsetail Technologies, the credit union'stechnology partners include Ongoing Operations, a Hagerstown,Md.-based CUSO, for business continuity and disaster recovery; andthe Brookfield, Wis.-based Fiserv as its core provider.

Ortiz explained, “We don't really have an IT business unit. Wehave a business technology business unit. IT sits in the center ofit as the infrastructure that enables all of our businessprocesses.”

Two particular projects stood out in the past year, Ortiz said.One was adding an online account origination function by installingan online account opening product and then going the extra mile toensure The Partnership had an interface connecting its onlinebanking platform to its core platform. This helped maximize bothonline account opening and online lending for the credit union,Ortiz explained.

The second project entailed researching credit and debit cardplatform consolidation.

“We looked at numerous vendor and IT solutions, and did athorough analysis of fraud and security solutions to ensure thatour backbone was optimized,” Ortiz said.

In the process, the credit union selected a new vendor and movedbetween the planning and execution stages quickly. As a result, itsaved $51,000 on its project management budget for the year.

A commitment to business analytics also led The Partnership toexpand its examination of vendor programs, which led to moreaggressively negotiated contracts, vendor consolidations, ananalysis of contracted products and services, and the eliminationof under or unutilized services.

“It was all about looking at where can we consolidate vendorsand really reach premier partnerships with vendors,” Ortiz said,adding she also wanted to ensure the credit union used at least 80%of each product. “Many times we select a product based on somefeatures and functionalities, and then you get it in-house andultimately don't use it.”

Her team created a credit union solutions matrix, which listsall critical systems and their respective dependencies andintersections. The document enables the credit union totroubleshoot system issues or outages quickly.

“We know exactly how all of our systems connect,” Ortiz said.“We have educated all of our staff down to the front office on howthat occurs. From a maintenance perspective, I have not increasedthe maintenance of my systems in three years. We can diagnosequicker because we have a better idea of what is going on.”

She added, “I hear a lot of my colleagues say IT runs the show.That is not the way we operate at The Partnership. Here, IT is anenabler and our business leaders run the show.”

Ortiz is also committed to investing in the next generation ofleaders and taking an active role in her community. She providesmentoring to young leaders inside and outside of the credit union,is co-chair of the Global Women's Leadership Network DC SisterSociety and is commandant of her yacht club.

“A small to medium-sized credit union struggles daily to ensureit can maximize value to members because it needs to compete,”Ortiz stated. “Members have choices. The loyalty of the youngermillennial is just not what the older baby boomer used to be. Youmust have all the same products and conveniences [as otherfinancial institutions] and serve them across channels in the sameway.”